Saturday, July 17, 2010

Tonight southpaw Joey Abell fought an excellent fight, dominating the first three rounds behind a strong right jab with a punishing straight left hand that found its mark down the middle on nemesis Arron Lyons, who handed him his first loss back in December 2006. As he continued his strong start at the beginnig of the second round he eventually began landing left hand-right hook combinations, along with the right uppercut to the body followed by the hook to the head. By the end of the third round he was landing more uppercuts and hooks in combinations with more measured power, and in the fourth round he opened a vicious cut over Lyon's left eye, prompting referee Mark Nelson to consult Dr. Sheldon Siegal, under whose advice Nelson stopped the scheduled 10 round fight.

In the semi-main event Vicente Alfaro of Hastings, MN defeated St. Paul's Brad Patraw with a second round TKO. Alfaro opened the fight by outjabbing Patraw and backing him up, using great head movement and landing punishing hooks and body blows while throwing an occasional hard right hand. In the second Alfaro's right hand found the mark and his relentless combinations dropped Patraw twice before the finishing flurry caused referee Gary Meezwa to stop the fight. Alfaro looked exceptionally good in this fight, showing he has great potential to rapidly advance in his career.

In the opening fight Marty "Wolfman" Lindquist broke a four fight losing streak with a first round TKO over Frankie Quinn, who entered the Cruiserweight bout with a 6-0 record after not having fought since 1997. Lindquist stalked Quinn, missing often with a wild right hand but dropping him with the one punch when he finally landed it late in the round, following with a mild flury causing Quinn to fall again finally to his knees.

In the second fight Bobby Butters, Jr., whose father is a retired club fighter known for professoinally boxing in St. Paul and the larger Twin Cities through the 1990s, appeared to demonstrate that coming form a boxing family wold propell him by virtue of experience into victory over MMA fighter Travis Perzynski, who was 0-1 as a boxer. But after starting aggesssively with combinations off his fast jab and some good movement and footwork, Butters was careless with wild right hands. Puzynski caught him on the ropes with combinations to the body and head and put him out on his feet, prompting referee Mark Nelson to stop the fight.

José Hilario made quick work of debuting Jr. Lightweight Matthew Brogan of Green Bay. Hilario began with a couple of jabs as he moved to his left and the pair made one clockwise resolution around the cent fo the ring. Brogan looked unprepared for the professional ring, getting caught with a right uppercut that caused him to lurch forward, holding Hilario as he drove im into the ropes. Hilario turned him around and continued whipping looping combinations off of him, not hurting him with most shots but damaging him greatly when landing the right uppercut, which allowed him to land the right uppercut body shot that put Brogan down and won the fight.

Finally, Gavin Quinn, the son of Frankie Quinn, made his professional debut at Jr. Middleweight with a lackluster victory over Ryan Stock. After Stock opened the fight with first round dominance, continuously controlling im with the left jab and landing the right hand and left hook at will, estabishing a large mouse under the southpaw Quinn's right eye. But in the second round Stock began giving the victory away, deciding not to be busy enough to continue his dominance. While in the thrid and fourth rounds Quinn kept coming forward and throwing the majoirty of punches in the fight, his footwork was legthargic and came mostly off his heals rather than the balls of his feet. Stock decided to lean in a corner at one point to just put his hands up and let Quinn punch him willingly, even though most of the shots only landed on Stock's gloves. Obviosly Stock is not Muhammad Ali and if he was attempting the so-called "rope a dope" move of Ali e had no idea what he was donig. He was not in shape either, which probably explains why he only fought in the first round and deciding to go the distance a a punching bag for the remainer of the 4 round fight.

Friday, July 16, 2010

On March 3, my boxing coach who taught me to fight at age ten and guided me to national tournaments, Emmett J. Yanez, turned 90 years old. He also trained numerous other Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions as well as national champions over the years, and he continues to coach amateur boxers today. His most recent champion is Robert Brant, who won the National Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship for the second time this year and is attempting to win the USA Boxing Light Heavyweight Championship at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO this week. During the celebration, which took place at Mancini's Char House in St. Paul, I was privileged to read out a declaration from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman declaring March 3, 2010 Emmett J. Yanez Day in St. Paul, Minnesota. A special thanks to my father, Robert Connor, for advising me to contact the Mayor's office for the declaration.

The text of the declaration in its entirety follows.

Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez is currently a resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota and has lived in the city for nearly 80 years, in addition to having worked for the City of Saint Paul in the Department of Public Works;

Whereas, Emmett J. yanez today turns 90 years old;

Wereas, Emmett J. Yanez is a World War II veteran of the United States Army, regiment 504 of the 82nd Airborne Division that fought to liberate Europe;

Whereas, upon returning to Saint Paul after the war Emmett J. Yanez boxed professionally and eventually became a traiiner of Saint Paul Amateur boxers for more than 50 years;

Whereas, Emmett J. Yanez has developed numerous Saint Paul Golden Gloves and Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Champions, City, state, and Regional amateur boxing champions of the juunior Olympic and Open Class age groups, and at least two open class national champions, and he has also trained successful professional boxers in Saint Paul;

Whereas, Emmett j. Yanez continues assisting Saint Paul youth and youth in general as a trainer of amateur boxers in a Saint Paul suburb,

Now, Therefore, I, Christopher B. Coleman, mayor of the City of Saint Paul, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, march 03, 2010, to be:

Emmett J. Yanez Day

in the City of Saint Paul

In Witness Whereof I have herunto set my hand and caused the seal of the City of Saint Paul to be affixed this Third Day of March in the Year Two Thousand Ten.